Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Chevron Chenille Blanket Done!

If you remember, I posted about a month ago about the chevron chenille blanket I was making for baby W. Well, it has been awhile, but I'm finally finished! Baby W, if you are reading this, now that your blanket is done you are free to come at any time :)

It all started like this.

Zigzag, back and forth stitching along every black chevron line. This part took the longest and tried my patience more than once. The original pattern from Aesthetic Nest was for a larger chevron print and I can see why. My tiny little zigzags were hard to maneuver around.

After everything was stitched (top cotton panel and four pieces of flannel below), the cutting began. This isn't the best picture, but you can see the difference between the cut zigzags and the quilted back.

Once the entire back was cut I sewed a black binding around the edge. I used this tutorial to figure out how to do mitered corners. I hand stitched the binding over the front of the quilt.

Finally, I threw the quilt in the washing machine to make the edges of the flannel fray.

What do you think? I love it!! I almost gave up...several times. This was my very first quilt and perhaps I could have chosen something a little less time intensive. OH WELL. I think my hard work paid off.

A few tips from me:

If I were to do this again, I would use a heavy-duty top piece of fabric for the design or double the cotton piece. When I cut through the flannel, the cotton piece seems flimsy.

Choose a chevron print with large zigzags if you don't want to spend hours and hours and hours on a tiny print.

When cutting through your flannel, lay the blanket on a hard surface and cut carefully. I didn't cut through my top piece of cotton, but you very easily could. I thought having the hard surface underneath helped a lot.